Rescue them from themselves
By
FOR many Nigerians, life is fast becoming a battle which must be won on a daily basis.
The battle starts when you wake up in the morning, thanks to the mercy and grace of our Heavenly Father who allowed us to survive the night and see the dawn of another day. If NEPA is kind you can see to go through your usual routine for the morning. If it isn’t, you grope your way around until God’s own light illumines everywhere and you can finish your duties and dash off to work. Here in Lagos where there is traffic build-up on all the major roads due to pot holes which you have to dodge, or slow down at, the reckless and irresponsible ‘stop and pick up passengers’ of commercial drivers, and the unreasonable attitude of other road users, you have to leave home early, if you value your peace of mind and also want to be on time at your place of work.
In spite of all the precautions, you find that you are bone-tired even before you start work. Somehow you go through the day and the battle to return home starts. You win it and with a grateful heart you settle down to doing your chores and interacting with other family members. There are still good news to share but the bad news dominate everywhere.
You turn to the electronic or print media, you are fed with news of plane crashes, motor accidents, earthquakes, drowning, floods, plagues, riots and wars, ritual killings, assassination, robberies, drugs, etc. Your heart skips a beat here, beats faster there, for even though you are not a recipient of these happenings, news of them mars your happiness.
You are anxious for yourself and for your loved ones. You are not safe outdoors neither are you safe indoors. You go to bed feeling apprehensive, jumping at the slightest noise, your heart thumping away. All this insecurity of life and property, coupled with the ever-rising costs of living can take its toll on one’s health if one is not careful. Every day the purchasing power of our currency is reduced.
"I know. I find it difficult to tip people or give money to beggars, as I feel that anything less than twenty naira is not worth giving out," observed an acquaintance. "That’s true. Even beggars look disappointed when you give them five naira. Let’s just hope that the quality of life will improve in our life-time and there would come a time when we shall have less stress in our lives here."
Many of us will say a loud ‘Amen’ to that. Meanwhile, life goes on. In spite of all the frightening news in every day living, it appears there are still some young people who willingly expose themselves to danger.
I am sure many people must have missed the very short news item at the back of a national news paper recently, titled ‘Tough for Girls.’ It was on the sports page, and normally I would not have given it another glance, but the word girls caught my attention and I decided to read it.
Briefly, it said that skimpily dressed young ladies were turning out in large number to hang around the Presidential Hotel in Port Harcourt where the Super Eagles were lodged. They were milling around shamelessly around the premises’ gates, apparently out for the footballers who were preparing then for their match with Ghana.
The girls were having a tough time due to the good security network at the hotel which denied them access into the hotel complex. As a Nigerian woman, that news item made me feel embarrassed and sad. Why would our young ladies who are the mothers of future leaders of this country, dress skimpily and seductively, and then go hang outside a hotel?
Where were their parents and guardians? Did they leave home in such outfits or did they go change elsewhere? How did they feel standing out there half-dressed and heavily made-up? Anyone would conclude that they had only one thing in mind, and that was to be picked up by the players for intimacy!
Well, some of the players are popular internationally and the young ladies probably thought that it would be nice and rewarding to be associated with them. I’m sure that the main attraction was the money; the dollars that the players have, or will have.
So, were those young ladies telling the world that their bodies were available for sale?
In the sixties when the Pop music came into prominence in the western world, and groups like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles sprang up, the cult of teeny bopper fans was born and young girls would follow their favourite musicians or singers from place to place. Whether it was summer or winter, they would hang around where their idols’ were performing or lodging, for hours on end, or even overnight, shivering in the cold, just to catch a glimpse of them and scream for joy. They could get so excited that they could tear the clothes of the stars, or even yank off some of their hair to keep. Some of those girls did not mind offering their bodies to those celebrated performers. This was done because they were star-struck and would do anything to be noticed by them. They were not after money. Over the years, people who excel in other things like football, tennis, cricket, etc. began to have fans as well.
The practice is still very much alive, but until now, our young girls have not made this a big thing here. This is because of family ties and our culture which still demand that girls behave with decorum. These days it appears that this worthy value is being thrown out of the window in some homes and our girls now publicly behave in a brazen manner.
This could be attributed to migration to the cities where they can live in anonymity and misbehave to their hearts’ content, far away from disapproving parents and guardians. It used to be the illiterates and those with little education who shamelessly displayed ‘loose’ morals, but these days all social classes are involved judging by what goes on in the various university campuses which have become hunting grounds for randy men.
Should we leave these young ladies to pursue a life which not only brings them and the society disgrace, but also endangers their health and lives? Those in authority who can do something about it should not turn the other way just because they think their daughters or sisters can never embrace such a life. You never know.
I think these young ladies should be rescued from themselves. The various ministries and departments that deal with women and youth matters should step in and see that there is a clamp down on this sort of behaviour. If the Ministry of Education in Lagos State can establish a task force to arrest school children who play truancy, and those who go to beer parlours, gambling joints and hotels, the Ministries for Women’s Affairs and Youths can do the same with young ladies. Who knows how many sexually related diseases some of them may have contracted and passed on to men, who in turn would pass them onto their wives or girlfriends?
A frightening thought, isn’t it? It means that sexually faithful spouses and companions can be infected through no fault of theirs; and babies whose fathers passed on the HIV/AIDS virus to their mothers, can contract the disease in the womb. We make so much noise about ‘Italy girls, while we pay hardly any attention to the young girls here who are doing exactly what the former go abroad to do.
These girls should be rounded up periodically and sent to vocational centres where they can learn a trade which would give them a means of livelihood. You may even find that there are some of them who can shine academically if they had the means to further their education. Government should really sit up and address this problem.
September, 2001